Rise in the energy demand and depleting fossil fuels is pushing the market towards non-conventional sources of energy. Energy demand is expected to increase by 70% between 2012 and 2035. The existing conventional sources of energy are depleting at a much faster rate than expected and their depletion is equally proving detrimental to the climate. Although renewable sources of energy will help in addressing all the environmental issues, this technology is still at its nascent stage and needs more investment in R&D to harness its full potential. This has led to the market inclination towards energy storage devices. These storage devices store energy to harness it in future. This balances the demand and supply gap for future purposes.

Energy storage devices (ESD) can be broadly segmented on the basis of geography, technology, applications, and end use sectors. Flywheels, flow batteries, solid state batteries, compressed air energy storage, thermal and pumped hydro power are different types of storage technology being employed by end use sectors such as wind, thermal and solar companies. While flywheel and battery storage technology is witnessing massive popularity in North America, emerging economies are employing super magnets and synthetic gas to harness the energy demands. Flywheel and battery storage with its robust features is set to capture the APAC and ASEAN market in future.

Grid storage and transportation are two major end use segments where energy storage devices find a promising future. These two major applications will witness a double digit CAGR growth in the period between 2014 and 2020. The rising demand for renewable sources of energy, particularly wind and solar energy, high priority for smart grid up-gradation, and battery-operated vehicles is causing the energy storage market to grow at an exponential rate.

Geographically, ASEAN, North America, and Europe are the three most lucrative markets for storage devices. ASEAN market is the most diverse market globally with a large population base and robust economic growth. Though ASEAN members, particularly Indonesia, are rich in conventional sources of energy, government is focusing on clean energy. From 2004 to 2009, ASEAN achieved its 10% target to promote and install non-conventional sources of energy for the power sector. It is expected that the ASEAN-6 (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam) will achieve 15% target by FY 2015. Besides these 6 members, Lao PDR is the market with the most potential in terms of hydro power. Close proximity to major economic hubs, India and China, are other added advantages for ASEAN members. Thailand is the automotive leader in ASEAN region. With the government focusing on clean energy, battery-operated automobiles will see greater penetration in the Thailand market. Together, these ASEAN regions offer a huge untapped energy market for business enterprises operating in energy storage devices.

Europe is another major market for ESD. Being an industrialised region with the presence of key automotive players in Germany, UK, France and Italy, is driving the European ESD market to its zenith. While Eastern Europe is still inclined towards traditional sources of energy, Western Europe has invested considerable amounts in R&D and power grid installation of non-conventional sources of energy. Flywheel is the most used technology employed by European countries.

North America is the next major market for energy storage devices. Solar energy, biomass, and wind power segments are overtaking the power segment at an exponential rate. Wind power installation will witness 6X times growth by FY 2020. The government in North America is promoting these renewable sources to cut its CO2 emissions and thereby limiting global warming to maximum 20C.

General Electric, NEC Corporation and NRG Energy are some of the key players in the global energy storage device market.

With the market accelerating towards non-conventional sources of energy, the future seems promising for energy storage devices market. As ASEAN is still underdeveloped in terms of harnessing energy through solar and wind power, the global market for energy storage devices is set to grow at a moderate CAGR rate. More investment and R&D across ASEAN is set to offer momentum to the growth of this market.